I have been playing YIS Varsity Tennis since 9th grade. Until last year (11th grade), thanks to captains I did not necessarily took leadership, but rather specifically focus on my tennis performance. Moreover, after my match I used to just relax and doing personal things, while I did not often go watch my teammates play or cheer them.

However, now that I became co-captain this year, this changed. This is the first time I ever take leadership in any kind, so I was very nervous whether I can lead the team, but at the same I wanted to try myself as well. As a captain of the team, not only I need to focus on myself, but also the whole team. I would need to look after my teammates (communication, during practices), cheer them, give them advices (tennis skills, mindset, points about opposing player if I have seen him before) support them based on my 4 years of tennis experiences.

Based on what captains were doing in the past 3 years, I did not find it as difficult as I was thinking all I need to do was to just communicate well, and support my teammates. However, being captain turned out to be very difficult on the first match of the year against St Mary’s in September 1, 2018.

After the loss of my match, I was thinking about what went wrong, and what I need to improve. I was also eating lunch, and doing my personal things. However while I was doing it time passed very quickly, and I was not able to watch teammates play and cheer them. Some of my teammates also lost, so I regretted that if I cheered them then maybe they might have won.

This experience taught me the importance and difficulty of being a captain, especially in terms of sacrificing myself a bit to help the team by encouraging my teammates and so forth. My first experience as a captain definitely helped myself on the next match against CAJ on September 28, when YIS beat CAJ by 4-1. I personally won the match as well, and after the match I was able to watch teammates play, cheer them, and give advices which I was not able to do on the last game against St. Mary’s, although this is one of the key roles that captain should play. From this match, I further learnt the importance of not only caring about myself but also everyone in the team, by leading, cheering and giving advice, which would guide to success as a player but also a team.

After the October break, we will be having our final tournament, Kanto Tournament, which would be the last match for me to play for YIS. As a compilation of what I’ve done as part of Varsity Tennis, I am looking forward to perform at my best, but at the same time have leadership as the captain.